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Lussani Sirdach
'''Lussani Sirdach ith'Faelcree '''is a founding member of the Shaad'Ept, a priestess in service of the Light, wielder of the ancient longsword Dawnbringer, and the royal consort and wife of Druid-King Fazumar Faelcree. After Aelius's betrayal and death during the Tokugi Konpe, Lussani became a founding force behind the progressive sect of The Eightfold Faith known as the Children of the Unbound Light. Lussani served as a combat medic during The Long War. During that time, she was killed with an arrow. Her subsequent resurrection at Aelius's hands led her to joining the Eightfold Faith as an acolyte. When the war was over, Lussani and her friend Morgran Burningaxe were recruited by their former commander Thraak Fistfire to take part in a special operatives unit known as the Shaad'Ept (orcish for "Shadow Five"). Biography Youth Born in the midst of the War, Lussani and her brother Lowell are the twin-born children of Captain Cora Marthaine-Sirdach, a pirate-prince of Esson, and her merchant/historian husband Doyle Sirdach. When she was seven years old, Lussani was playing out behind her dad's shop when she fell through a piece of rotten wood and into a rattus tunnel, injuring her ankle. She screamed for help, but she was too far below the surface to be heard. The rattus, however, took notice and began to drag her down into the depths. Just before she was completely pulled under, an elvish wolfhound ran down into the tunnel, attacked the rattus, and pulled her to safety. The family kept the dog, naming her Rhaethaine, and would be a close companion of Lussani's throughout the rest of her time in Esson. Following this incident, Lussani would develop a deep fear of rats (and, by extension, disease). Enlistment in the War Her brother, Lowell, took after their mother and pursued a life on the sea. Lussani, on the other hand, inherited their father's seasickness and stuck to the land. In school she gravitated towards biology and one day dreamed of going to Titan's Reach University (following in her father's footsteps) to become a doctor. Those plans changed when Lowell's ship was ambushed and everyone on board was killed. In the wake of her brother's death, Lussani chose to forgo her medical degree and enlisted with the Koridorian military as a combat medic on the front lines at the age of sixteen. She was assigned to the 21st People's Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant General Thraak Fistfire. Death and Resurrection Adjusting to military life proved difficult for Lussani. All of her studies did little to prepare her for the horrors of a war that was seemingly without end. In her loneliness and growing depression, she would befriend the dwarf Morgran Burningaxe, who helped her to acclimate to the stark environment. She developed a few intimate relationships with fellow soldiers, some of whom died under her care. The longest, and most notable, of these lovers was the ranger Aiden Halvor. In 2157 ID, Lussani stumbled upon Aiden holding one of the prisoners of war hostage, demanding information in a language she couldn't understand. She and Aiden got into a heated fight, with her physically getting between the hostage and her boyfriend. Whether by accident or on purpose, Aiden shot an arrow into her throat. Morgran, overhearing the altercation, grabbed the grievously wounded Lussani and ran her back to the encampment, but by the time he got to the medic tent, she was already dead. don't want to hurt you."]] Lussani awoke naked in a pitch black cave. She wandered the cave for what seemed like hours before a glowing golden wolf approached her. The mysterious creature offered to lead her out of the cave in exchange for her faith and loyalty. She agreed, and followed the creature into the sunlight. As she stepped through, Lussani awoke beneath a sheet in the medic tent, alive and gasping for air. She had no memory of her time in the cave. Aiden was nowhere to be found. The trauma of her death and resurrection rendered her mute (the mental and physical implications of her throat injury) and stoic. Joining the Eightfold Faith When it became clear that Lussani was too traumatized to continue her normal duties, Thraak had no choice but to grant her an honorable discharge. She was to be taken to Methis City where her mother could retrieve her and take her back to Esson. On the way to Mithidoria, her transport got caught in a vicious rainstorm, forcing them to take shelter in an Aeliusian church. The sight of the golden wolf statue brought back a flood of memories of the afterlife, the wolf, and the promise she made. She found her voice again, kneeling before the statue and praying intently for the first time in her life. She spent the rest of the evening talking with the priest on site and, the next day, requested her driver to take her to the nearest Eightfold Faith encampment. After a year of intense seminary training, Lussani returned to the 21st as an acolyte priestess of Aelius. End of the War and Forming of the Shaad'Ept Her time back with the 21st was to be short-lived. In late 2158 ID, the Day of Agony destroyed eastern Prothidoria and active combat ceased. The news devastated Lussani in particular, as most of her father's family was living in the region at the time of the destruction. She approached Thraak and requested to be released to help with the recovery effort. Intrigued by the boldness of her request, the orc general suggested she recruit a few soldiers to go with her. The only two willing to go anywhere near the blast zone were Morgran, who volunteered out of boredom, and the doppelganger wizard Frak, who demanded a handsome fee for his services. Over the next year and a half, Lussani, Morgran, and Frak assisted in treating and relocating refugees, as well as helping to establish the new Prothidorian capital of Neo Prothus in the western borderlands. Their exploits did not go unnoticed by their former commander, who offered them an official paying gig to work for the Koridorian government as a special ops team. With Prothidoria now stable, they accepted. 2163 ID Festival of the Radiant One By midsummer of 2163 the team, now called the Shaad'Ept, had grown to five members: Lussani, Morgran, Frak, Thymoménos (a former soldier and longtime friend of Morgran), and Fazumar (an elf druid from the Wyldwoods of Haellyen). The mayor of Oakvale sent a formal request for assistance with a local goblin problem that threatened the upcoming Festival of the Radiant One and the Shaad'Ept, at Thraak's command, went to aid. The festival was attacked by a band of crazed goblins. During the fracas, Lussani encountered what appeared to be their mad leader. He sang "Blood for the Blood God" at her while his minions overwhelmed and dragged her into the tunnels they had built to get into the town. Fazumar, in wolf form, drove the small horde away from Lussani, forcing them to flee. The rest of the goblins attacking the town were dispatched by the rest of the team. Over the next several days Lussani slept fitfully, unable to shake the goblin's song from her mind. When she did sleep, she dreamed of Doria on fire, overwhelmed by armies the undead. She and the Shaad'Ept stood on a hill watching the destruction unfold. One by one the team disappeared until Lussani was the only one remaining. A dragon so large that the shadow of its wingspan darkened the land below approached her. A red-clad boy riding the dragon called her, "the mother of this new world." Everspring Mountain During the clean up effort of Oakvale, the Shaad'Ept were recruited by the sheriff and Father U-tuk to deal with Uncle Whispers, the mad leader of the rebel Tunnelmurk goblins who attacked Oakvale, once and for all. Whispers had kidnapped U-tuk's daughter Nu-kik and took her to Everspring Mountain. Lussani, recalling her near kidnapping, agreed on behalf of the team. The closer to the mountain the team got, the more intense Lussani's dreams became. Each night her companions disappeared, the dragon approached, the boy called her "mother." On the final night, the dream had a new ending: she ran the boy through with a golden sword. The world was saved. The team arrived at Everspring, beset by the wild goblins that had attacked Oakvale. The deeper they traveled into the caverns, the deeper the feeling became that something was very wrong. Whispers warning of something that "must not wake" floated in the air. The chorus of whispers was joined by chanting from deep within the mountain. The chanting was eerily similar to the song that Uncle Whispers had sang to Lussani during the festival attack. Following the chants deep in the mountain took them into an antechamber turned into a sacrificial altar, Uncle Whispers at the helm with dagger in hand, Princess Nu-kik bound and gagged. In the ensuing battle with the goblin necromancer and his horde of goblin and skeletons minions, a section of the antechamber collapsed, swallowing Lussani and Uncle Whispers into the mountain below. Lussani survived the forty foot tumble, though not suffering broken ribs and clavicle. Uncle Whispers was apparently not so lucky, breaking his neck on impact. There was no going up for Lussani, only forward. There was a stark difference between the architecture down here and what she saw above. It looked Arthesian, perhaps even pre-Imperial Sophic. The carvings in the walls disturbed her, depicting the rise of a man to a pharaoh to a god. More disturbing were the images of rivers running red with blood, of the dead rising and turning the living into their own, all beneath the watchful gaze of this Pharaoh God. She finally came upon a chamber bigger than anywhere else she'd seen in the mountain. Broken pillars and statues destroyed by time and battle. In the middle of the chamber, at the feet of an ornate throne, there was a golden sword sticking out of the ground: the sword from Lussani's dreams. Lussani pulled the sword from the ground, at first to her joy, then to her utter dismay. The blade melted away. Around her, dust and bones and angry whispers and the sounds of battle swirled around her, bringing her to her knees. When she opened her eyes, a tall, pale man with angry red eyes and sharp teeth stood before her. He introduced himself as Khebenhotep, brought her to her feet, and offered her any boon she desired for "freeing" him. She refused. Instead of killing her, as she so feared, he disappeared. The chamber above rattled. Rubble collapsed around her. The mountain was collapsing, and she was trapped, wounded from her fall. There was no way out of the throne room but back the way she came. Category:Characters Category:Terrans Category:Major Characters Category:Neutral Good Category:Clergy Category:Adventurers Category:Priests